For the sake of convenience, the current description focuses on systems and techniques that may be realized in a particular embodiment of cantilever-based instruments, the atomic force microscope (AFM). Cantilever-based instruments include such instruments as AFMs, molecular force probe instruments (1 D or 3D), high-resolution profilometers (including mechanical stylus profilometers), surface modification instruments, chemical or biological sensing probes, and micro-actuated devices. The systems and techniques described herein may be realized in such other cantilever-based instruments.
An AFM is a device used to produce images of surface topography (and/or other sample characteristics) based on information obtained from scanning (e.g., rastering) a sharp probe on the end of a cantilever relative to the surface of the sample. Topographical and/or other features of the surface are detected by detecting changes in deflection and/or oscillation characteristics of the cantilever (e.g., by detecting small changes in deflection, phase, frequency, etc., and using feedback to return the system to a reference state). By scanning the probe relative to the sample, a “map” of the sample topography or other sample characteristics may be obtained.
Changes in deflection or in oscillation of the cantilever are typically detected by an optical lever arrangement whereby a light beam is directed onto the cantilever in the same reference frame as the optical lever. The beam reflected from the cantilever illuminates a position sensitive detector (PSD). As the deflection or oscillation of the cantilever changes, the position of the reflected spot on the PSD changes, causing a change in the output from the PSD. Changes in the deflection or oscillation of the cantilever are typically made to trigger a change in the vertical position of the cantilever base relative to the sample (referred to herein as a change in the Z position, where Z is generally orthogonal to the XY plane defined by the sample), in order to maintain the deflection or oscillation at a constant pre-set value. It is this feedback that is typically used to generate an AFM image.
AFMs can be operated in a number of different sample characterization modes, including contact mode where the tip of the cantilever is in constant contact with the sample surface, and AC modes where the tip makes no contact or only intermittent contact with the surface.
Actuators are commonly used in AFMs, for example to raster the probe or to change the position of the cantilever base relative to the sample surface. The purpose of actuators is to provide relative movement between different parts of the AFM; for example, between the probe and the sample. For different purposes and different results, it may be useful to actuate the sample, the cantilever or the tip or some combination of both. Sensors are also commonly used in AFMs. They are used to detect movement, position, or other attributes of various components of the AFM, including movement created by actuators.
For the purposes of the specification, unless otherwise specified, the term “actuator” refers to a broad array of devices that convert input signals into physical motion, including piezo activated flexures, piezo tubes, piezo stacks, blocks, bimorphs, unimorphs, linear motors, electrostrictive actuators, electrostatic motors, capacitive motors, voice coil actuators and magnetostrictive actuators, and the term “position sensor” or “sensor” refers to a device that converts a physical parameter such as displacement, velocity or acceleration into one or more signals such as an electrical signal, including capacitive sensors, inductive sensors (including eddy current sensors), differential transformers (such as described in co-pending applications US20020175677A1 and US20040075428A1, Linear Variable Differential Transformers for High Precision Position Measurements, and US20040056653A1, Linear Variable Differential Transformer with Digital Electronics, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety), variable reluctance, optical interferometry, optical deflection detectors (including those referred to above as a PSD and those described in co-pending applications US20030209060A1 and US20040079142A1, Apparatus and Method for Isolating and Measuring Movement in Metrology Apparatus, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety), strain gages, piezo sensors, magnetostrictive and electrostrictive sensors.
In both the contact and AC sample-characterization modes, the interaction between the probe and the sample surface induces a discernable effect on a probe-based operational parameter, such as the cantilever deflection, the cantilever oscillation amplitude, the phase of the cantilever oscillation relative to the drive signal driving the oscillation or the frequency of the cantilever oscillation, all of which are detectable by a sensor. In this regard, the resultant sensor-generated signal is used as a feedback control signal for the Z actuator to maintain a designated probe-based operational parameter constant.
In contact mode, the designated parameter may be cantilever deflection. In AC modes, the designated parameter may be oscillation amplitude, phase or frequency. The feedback signal also provides a measurement of the sample characteristic of interest. For example, when the designated parameter in an AC mode is oscillation amplitude, the feedback signal may be used to maintain the amplitude of cantilever oscillation constant to measure changes in the height of the sample surface or other sample characteristics.
The periodic interactions between the tip and sample in AC modes induces cantilever flexural motion at higher frequencies. Measuring the motion allows interactions between the tip and sample to be explored. A variety of tip and sample mechanical properties including conservative and dissipative interactions may be explored. Stark, et al., have pioneered analyzing the flexural response of a cantilever at higher frequencies as nonlinear interactions between the tip and the sample. In their experiments, they explored the amplitude and phase at numerous higher oscillation frequencies and related these signals to the mechanical properties of the sample.
Unlike the plucked guitar strings of elementary physics classes, cantilevers normally do not have higher oscillation frequencies that fall on harmonics of the fundamental frequency. The first three modes of a simple diving board cantilever, for example, are at the fundamental resonant frequency (f0), 6.19f0 and 17.5 f0. An introductory text in cantilever mechanics such as Sarid has many more details. Through careful engineering of cantilever mass distributions, Sahin, et al., have developed a class of cantilevers whose higher modes do fall on higher harmonics of the fundamental resonant frequency. By doing this, they have observed that cantilevers driven at the fundamental exhibit enhanced contrast, based on their simulations on mechanical properties of the sample surface. This approach is has the disadvantage of requiring costly and difficult to manufacture special cantilevers.
The simple harmonic oscillator (SHO) model gives a convenient description at the limit of the steady state amplitude A of the eigenmode of a cantilever oscillating in an AC mode:
  A  =                              F          0                /        m                                                        (                                                ω                  0                  2                                -                ω                            )                        2                    -                                    (                                                ωω                  0                                /                Q                            )                        2                                ⁢          (      SHO      )      where F0 is the drive amplitude (typically at the base of the cantilever), m is the mass, ω is the drive frequency in units of rad/sec, ω0 is the resonant frequency and Q is the “quality” factor, a measure of the damping.
If, as is often the case, the cantilever is driven through excitations at its base, the expression becomes
  A  =                              A          drive                ⁢                  ω          0          2                                                                (                                                ω                  0                  2                                -                                  ω                  2                                            )                        2                    ⁢                                    (                                                ω                  0                                ⁢                ω                            )                        2                                ⁢          (              SHO        ⁢                                  ⁢        Amp            )      where F0/m has been replaced with Adriveω02, where Adrive is the drive amplitude (at the oscillator).
The phase angle φ is described by an associated equation
  ϕ  =                    tan                  -          1                    ⁡              [                              ωω            0                                Q            ⁡                          (                                                ω                  0                  2                                -                                  ω                  2                                            )                                      ]              ⁢          (              SHO        ⁢                                  ⁢        Phase            )      
When these equations are fulfilled, the amplitude and phase of the cantilever are completely determined by the user's choice of the drive frequency and three independent parameters: Adrive, ω0 and Q.
In some very early work, Martin, et al., drove the cantilever at two frequencies. The cantilever response at the lower, non-resonant frequency was used as a feedback signal to control the surface tracking and produced a topographic image of the surface. The response at the higher frequency was used to characterize what the authors interpreted as differences in the non-contact forces above the Si and photo-resist on a patterned sample.
Recently, Rodriguez and Garcia published a theoretical simulation of a non-contact, attractive mode technique where the cantilever was driven at its two lowest eigenfrequencies. In their simulations, they observed that the phase of the second mode had a strong dependence on the Hamaker constant of the material being imaged, implying that this technique could be used to extract chemical information about the surfaces being imaged. Crittenden et al. have explored using higher harmonics for similar purposes.
There are a number of techniques where the instrument is operated in a hybrid mode where a contact mode feedback loop is maintained while some parameter is modulated. Examples include force modulation and piezo-response imaging.
Force modulation involves maintaining a contact mode feedback loop while also driving the cantilever at a frequency and then measuring its response. When the cantilever makes contact with the surface of the sample while being so driven, its resonant behavior changes significantly. The resonant frequency typically increases, depending on the details of the contact mechanics. In any event, one may learn more about the surface properties because the elastic response of the sample surface is sensitive to force modulation. In particular, dissipative interactions may be measured by measuring the phase of the cantilever response with respect to the drive.
A well-known shortcoming of force modulation and other contact mode techniques is that the while the contact forces may be controlled well, other factors affecting the measurement may render it ill-defined. In particular, the contact area of the tip with the sample, usually referred to as contact stiffness, may vary greatly depending on tip and sample properties. This in turn means that the change in resonance while maintaining a contact mode feedback loop, which may be called the contact resonance, is ill-defined. It varies depending on the contact stiffness. This problem has resulted in prior art techniques avoiding operation at or near resonance.